Regular Statin Use May Reduce the Risk of Severe COVID-19, Research Finds
People who take common cholesterol-cutting drugs may significantly lower their likelihood of dying from the coronavirus.
A large new study of more than 38,000 patients suggests that commonly used cholesterol-lowering statins may protect against serious cases of COVID-19 and death from the disease.
Extensive research presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (October 21–25) found that 30 percent of 38,875 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 at 185 hospitals in the United States between January 1 and September 30, 2020, used statins to treat high cholesterol. Analysis of their electronic medical records revealed that the statin users were 37 percent less likely to die of COVID-19 than those who didn’t use statins.
In addition, regular statin users had a significantly lower risk of being discharged to hospice, being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), or developing blood clots. They also had shorter hospital stays and spent less time on a ventilator.
“While there is no ‘magic bullet’ to help patients who are very ill with COVID-19, statins decrease inflammation, which may help reduce the severity of the disease,” said the lead study author, Ettore Crimi, MD, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. “Results of our study clearly showed regular statin use is associated with reduced risk of death and improved outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.”
About one in four Americans over the age of 40 takes a statin drug to protect against heart risks related to atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries), according to the American Heart Association. These medications decrease the chance of heart attack or stroke, and appear to work by reducing arterial inflammation.
Research published January 20, 2022, in Immunology and Inflammation found that COVID-19 killed vital immune cells and triggered massive inflammation in the body. Prolonged or extreme inflammation may cause serious damage to the lungs, kidneys, heart, brain, and vascular system. Dr. Crimi said in a press release that the anti-inflammatory actions of statins “cool the process” so that the disease is not as severe.
This latest investigation supports previous studies demonstrating that statins could lessen extreme COVID symptoms. Scientists in Spain published an analysis November 2, 2020, in the European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy revealing that statin treatment cuts COVID mortality risk by 22 to 25 percent. In September 2021, researchers in Sweden reported in PLOS Medicine that statins were linked with a “modest” reduced likelihood of COVID-related death.
On the other hand, some research has suggested that statins may do more harm than good when it comes to the coronavirus. A study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine and published in the journal PLoS One in October 2021, indicated that the cholesterol-lowering medications may raise the risk of severe infection by 18 percent.
Crimi, however, stressed that current results from his team support the need for further scientific exploration of statins as a type of adjuvant, or supportive, therapy for those infected with the coronavirus.
“This research illustrates the importance of evaluating medications that could be repurposed to help patients in ways other than their intended use,” he said. “Our results suggest statins could be an additional cost-effective solution against COVID-19 disease severity and should be studied further.”